An uncomfortable truth is that you can have open borders or high unskilled labor wages, but seldom both.
The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
281–290 of 915 posts
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#282Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure how your body parts wear out. Football players ruin their bodies through accumulated injuries, not wearing their bodies out. Do athletes wear their bodies out? I've never heard of that. How does doing plumbing/electricioning wear your body out?
>Football players ruin their bodies through accumulated injuries, not wearing their bodies out. >Do athletes wear their bodies out? I've never heard of that. Isn't "[ruining] their bodies through accumulated injuries" the same thing as wearing their body out?
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#283Earlier quoted context omitted.
> First we were told that we needed the college degree for a job. Any degree would do. Something strange is happening here that I can't quite understand. Jokes about English majors asking if you want fries with that are way older than me and I first started college in 1999. Yes, I heard a persistent low rumbling of "go to college," but the idea that "any degree would do" is alien to me. Of course I knew that some maj…
I think they realized they weren't going to make as much money, but I don't think they realized they would be poor. Poor people generally have less privacy, less dignity, and a harder life. So, maybe they are frustrated there weren't enough safeguards to prevent them from making a decision that lead to them becoming poor.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#284Earlier quoted context omitted.
Plumbers and electricians contort their body and are moving up and down into cavities of various sizes all day. It definitely takes a toll on you.
Can't be worse than yoga. Edit: Downvote me all you like. I've done yoga, I've done plumbing, I've done electrical. Yoga takes the cake by a mile for most painful contorting. And yet I know an 86 yo woman who has been doing yoga 3 time a week forever and is fit and sharp.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#285Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fitting pipes together is not "back breaking". We're not talking about framing or roofing, in the contracting world plumbing is a light duty skilled trade that anyone with half a brain can earn a 6-figure income on. If you take care of yourself and wear protective equipment, you won't have a problem with your knees in middle age. There's no "forced retirement", someone working as an independent contractor for 25 year…
I see this line about kids wanting to be influencers. Is there a credible source? And is this any different than them wanting to be a rock star, movie star, etc.? Most who have this hairbrained dream can fail quickly and hopefully with minimal cost or embarrassment and move on with their lives.
I think it's mostly harmless and of course most kids will grow out of it. It's definitely like wanting to be a rockstar, but I think the scale is larger and the barrier to entry so much lower that they seem much more convinced it's actually a viable option than what I thought being a rockstar was when I was a kid.
My guess is for many of them it will be a second "wait, Santa isn't real?" moment when they get a bit older and realize that power law distributions are a thing and that's just how it is. Followed by fun times reminiscing about it with each other as adults.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#286Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It isn't a bad career But there is a finite end to the career - when your body gives out. That's the biggest problem with the trades, you're selling your health and body. And eventually the body parts will wear out, on a schedule decided as much by genetics as how you live.
I'm not sure how your body parts wear out. Football players ruin their bodies through accumulated injuries, not wearing their bodies out. Do athletes wear their bodies out? I've never heard of that. How does doing plumbing/electricioning wear your body out?
Edit:typo
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#287Earlier quoted context omitted.
The company sending you a high bill doesn't automatically mean the guy who fixed your house gets paid well though, does it?
They were one man shops. 20 years ago, the going rate for installing a socket in an existing wired and ready to go junction box was $50. It's about a 5 minute job. I know it's about 5 minutes because I've done a lot of them myself. I'm sure prices have gone up a lot in the last couple decades.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#288Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Football players ruin their bodies through accumulated injuries, not wearing their bodies out. >Do athletes wear their bodies out? I've never heard of that. Isn't "[ruining] their bodies through accumulated injuries" the same thing as wearing their body out?
No, it isn't the same thing. Just like crashing your car isn't the same thing as wearing it out.
Not taking precautions, for instance, when driving over potholes can wear certain facets of the car down without doing significant immediate damage, the same way that taking certain falls or hits can wear a body down. You don't need a crash.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#289Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It isn't a bad career But there is a finite end to the career - when your body gives out. That's the biggest problem with the trades, you're selling your health and body. And eventually the body parts will wear out, on a schedule decided as much by genetics as how you live.
I'm not sure how your body parts wear out. Football players ruin their bodies through accumulated injuries, not wearing their bodies out. Do athletes wear their bodies out? I've never heard of that. How does doing plumbing/electricioning wear your body out?
Via cumulative tissue, bone, and sensory damage. Also known as workin' hard.
Re: The skilled trades haven't caught as a career choice with Gen Z
#290A lot of these threads devolve into "have you tried paying more" but I'd also like to highlight "have you actually tried telling Gen Z that". I'm 35, from basically as early as I can remember until sophmore year of college I was told constantly by every adult (and I mean every adult not just the ones that had degrees) in my life to go to college, get a degree, any degree. So yeah I went to college. It was aggressivel…